Gene Tunney: Is he a top 10 ATG heavyweight?

I don´t rank on skill or stuff like that. Just resume, accomplishments, longevity and dominance. And a little bonus for guys who defined their era/proved themselves clearly the best by fighting the best.

 

Just outside, i have him above Dempsey.

He was an exceptional fighter but as said his resume at heavy isn't the deepest.

 

Higher. Went up to 40. Here is my list with the number of points they reached in my system.


1 Joe Louis 42
Muhammad Ali 42
3 Jack Johnson 37
4 Rocky Marciano 36
Larry Holmes 36
Lennox Lewis 36
7 Mike Tyson 33
8 James J. Jeffries 32
Evander Holyfield 32
10 Joe Frazier 31
11 Floyd Patterson 30
George Foreman 30
13 Wladimir Klitschko 29
14 Max Schmeling 26
Ezzard Charles 26
16 Sonny Liston 25
17 John L. Sullivan 24
Bob Fitzsimmons 24
Sam Langford 24
Jack Dempsey 24
Harry Wills 24
22 Jersey Joe Walcott 21
Vitali Klitschko 21
24 Jim Corbett 19
Riddick Bowe 19
26 Jack Sharkey 18
27 Archie Moore 17
Ingo Johannson 17
29 Gene Tunny 16
Jimmy Bivins 16
Harold Johnson 16
32 Max Baer 15
James Braddock 15
Ken Norton 15
35 Primo Carnera 14
36 Tommy Burns 13
Sam McVey 13
Joe Jeanette 13
39 Jess Willard 12
40 Marvin Hart 9

Now, you can rip me a new one.

 

:deal THIS IN A BIG WAY

Plus from my point of view what I would stress is that in these sort of things I like to assess them all at their bests and in their best fights - and when I go through all the heavyweight champs they only really have maybe 3 or 4 fights each in all honesty where there could ba said to have been at their absolute best anyway so I don't see it as too major a deal that we only have like 4 or 5 fights of Tunneys even fought at heavyweight because I'd only really consider probably the same number of fights with everyone else to get a guage on them aswell anyway - afterall we never saw Tunney at anything less than his best anyway

 

Whenever the old "the Greb fight was at light heavy" reasoning is trotted out, I ask then why is Greb's win over Gibbons considered by many as currency for status as a heavyweight challenger for Dempsey ?

Seems like double standards to me. If Greb-Gibbons counts as HW credentials, then Tunney over Greb certainly does (and, BTW, the last Tunney-Greb fight, Tunney was already a heavyweight).

 

Tunney in particular was at his absolute peak in his later fights, as a heavyweight. That seems to get lost on some people too.

 

Lower half of the top 20. He's still greatly respected for what he brought to the sport. A great jab that can dictate the pace & range of the fight.

 

He deserves to be ranked above Dempsey

 

If he is not in the top 20 he is right outside of it for me..

I put him towards the bottom with fighters like Max Schmeling, Max Baer and Jim Jeffries I actually think I would place Tunney after Jeffries but before Baer and Schmeling...

 

It is a double standard. And if Dempsey-Greb had happened and Jack successfully defended the title, we'd hear the same rhetoric about that fight, resulting in the win being devalued accordingly just like the Ketchel and Philly Jack defenses are for Johnson.